Located on the Isle of Staffa, the ancient cave is known for being a visual anomaly, attracting tourists from all over, but the island's early history is still largely unknown.

Now a group of experts are joining forces to reveal the secret history behind one of Scotland’s most significant heritage sites.

Archaeologists from The National Trust for Scotland and experts in Heritage Visualisation from The Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio have begun a special archaeological project on the island.

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The work comes as Staffa marks its 30th anniversary in the care of the NTS.

Following its ‘discovery’ by Joseph Banks in 1772 it quickly became established as an early tourist destination.

3D visualisation of Fingal’s Cave created by the team from the GSA and NTS

It has also been an inspiration to some of Europe’s most important cultural figures, including Wordsworth, Mendelssohn, Turner, Verne and Hogg, but little is known of its earlier history.

The island’s unknown cultural heritage is the focus of this new project, which builds on the work already undertaken by the two organisations at Fingal’s Cave on the Hebridean island.

A group of specialists led by Derek Alexander, Head of Archaeology at the National Trust for Scotland and Dr Stuart Jeffrey, Research Fellow at The Glasgow School of Art, is currently on the Island undertaking an evaluation excavation.

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The research is being recorded using traditional and photogrammetric techniques including a drone based survey of the northern sections of the island.

Derek Alexander said: “This next phase in our work with The Glasgow School of Art will help to extend our understanding of human activity on Staffa from the prehistoric period to the present day.

“Despite Staffa’s prominent position in the romantic imagination, it remains a largely unknown quantity archaeologically. This is a significant gap.

Specialists from NTS and the GSA working at Fingal's Cave on a previous project

“Prehistoric communities from the Mesolithic onwards would have been aware of Staffa but we have no understanding of prehistoric activity.”

The intense 18th and 19th century interest in Staffa arose from romantic conceptions of the past, the geological oddity of columnar basalt formations, the wealth of folklore and oral tradition focussed on the island an the legendary Fingal.

A single ruinous, but upstanding, bothy, which is known to have been used as a shelter by early tourists, remains on the island.

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Dr Jeffrey added: “There are historic references to the bothy being architecturally modified to ‘romanticise’ it for visitors. Our photogrammetric survey of the bothy will help to clarify this.

“During our time on the island we will also be taking the opportunity to record some of the fascinating 18th an 19thcentury graffiti in Fingal’s cave and search out earlier rock carving using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) which reveals surface information that is not visible to the naked eye.”

Following this week’s work the team is expected to return to Staffa to continue the work in October.